1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM)-based communications, and more specifically to tracking pilot tones of OFDM-based communications to reduce phase noise requirements in the radio portion of an OFDM receiver, as well as provide nearly optimal frequency error tracking performance.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In wireless local area network (WLAN) applications, multiple devices communicate with each other via OFDM-based radio frequency (RF) wireless links. A common format for such OFDM communication is based upon the IEEE 802.11a standard or the HiperLAN2 standard, for example. Good local oscillator (LO) phase performance in the radio portion of the OFDM transmitters and receivers is critical in such OFDM-based communications when using complex signal constellations, such as 64-QAM and 256-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation). This is because the symbol rate is chosen to be low enough to combat the severe multipath propagation characteristics that exist like those in indoor wireless applications and this low symbol rate also leads to greater phase noise related performance impairment. For example, in IEEE802.11a and HiperLAN2, the symbol rate is approximately 250 kHz thereby accentuating the need to have excellent phase noise performance in the radio at frequency offsets from the carrier in the vicinity of 250 kHz and less.
Furthermore, the phase of the RF signaling is effected by phase noise generated in the local oscillators (LOs) of both the transmitter and the receiver. Also, phase perturbations are introduced when the transmitter or the receiver moves relative each other and also when the multipath changes, e.g., a door is opened. Unfortunately, poor LO phase noise performance leads to a potentially high symbol error rate, which seriously degrades both the communication range and throughput of the system. For example, in a typical system using IEEE 802.11a, it is estimated that the phase noise interfering with each subcarrier of the OFDM waveform is on the order of 2.7 degrees rms. While this may be acceptable for QPSK and 16-QAM modulations, it is excessive for 64-QAM modulation or higher constellations, resulting in constellation points being easily confused.
Further adding to the problem is the fact that most transmitters and receivers of such wireless products are highly integrated on a single device or chip. As such, the performance of the RF portion of the receiver, for example, is relatively limited. Furthermore, implementing the RF portion of the system to have the desired good phase noise performance that is required for higher order modulations, such as 64-QAM and above, is very difficult when implemented on a single chip with low supply voltages (e.g., 3.3 volts).
The present invention advantageously addresses the needs above as well as other needs by providing a pilot tracking system utilizing an optimum pilot phase error metric based on a maximum likelihood estimation approach in the baseband processing portion of the OFDM-based receiver to compensate for poor local oscillator performance in the radio portion of the OFDM-based receiver and improve frequency tracking in general.
In one embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a method, and means for accomplishing the method, of pilot phase error estimation in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) receiver including the steps of: determining pilot reference points corresponding to a plurality of pilots of an OFDM preamble waveform; and estimating an aggregate phase error of a subsequent OFDM data symbol relative to the pilot reference points using complex signal measurements corresponding to each of the plurality of pilots of the subsequent OFDM data symbol and the pilot reference points.
In another embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a pilot phase error metric for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) receiver including a reference point storage for storing reference points corresponding to each of a plurality of pilots of an OFDM preamble waveform. Also included is a maximum likelihood phase error/weighting processor coupled to the reference point storage for processing complex signal measurements corresponding to each of a plurality of pilots of a subsequent OFDM data symbol in comparison to the reference points from the reference point storage. And a phase error estimator is coupled to the maximum likelihood phase error/weighting processor and is for estimating an aggregate phase error of the OFDM data symbol relative to the pilot reference points from the processed complex signal measurements and the reference points.